With the Wild Geese By Emily Lawless: With An Introduction by Stopford A. Brooke |
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THE STRANGER'S GRAVE |
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 | With the Wild Geese |  |
46
THE STRANGER'S GRAVE
[_]
In a graveyard upon Inishmaan, dedicated to unbaptized babies, an unknown drowned man lies buried
Little
feet too young and soft to walk,
Little lips too young and pure to talk,
Little faded grass-tufts, root and stalk.
Little lips too young and pure to talk,
Little faded grass-tufts, root and stalk.
I lie alone here, utterly alone,
Amid pure ashes my wild ashes mingle;
A drownèd man, without a name, unknown,
A drifting waif, flung by the drifting shingle.
Oh, plotting brain, and restless heart of mine,
What strange fate brought you to so strange a shrine?
Amid pure ashes my wild ashes mingle;
A drownèd man, without a name, unknown,
A drifting waif, flung by the drifting shingle.
Oh, plotting brain, and restless heart of mine,
What strange fate brought you to so strange a shrine?
47
Sometimes a woman comes across the grass,
Bare-footed, with pit-patterings scarcely heard,
Sometimes the grazing cattle slowly pass,
Or on my turf sings loud some mating bird.
Oh, plotting brain, and restless heart of mine,
What strange fate brought you to so strange a shrine?
Bare-footed, with pit-patterings scarcely heard,
Sometimes the grazing cattle slowly pass,
Or on my turf sings loud some mating bird.
Oh, plotting brain, and restless heart of mine,
What strange fate brought you to so strange a shrine?
Little feet too young ana soft to walk,
Little lips too young and pure to talk,
Little faded grass-tufts, root and stalk.
Little lips too young and pure to talk,
Little faded grass-tufts, root and stalk.
| With the Wild Geese | |